Means for the systematic control of electric circuits by light-rays.



S. OGAMPO.

MEANS FOR THE SYSTEMATIC CONTROL OF ELECTRIC CIRCUITS BY LIGHT RAYS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 14, 1913.

1 ,072, 1 52, Patented Sept. 2, 1913.

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UNITED STATES IATENT OFFICE.

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spmmaon of mam Patent.

Patented Sept. 2, 1913.

Application filed flal'ch ll, 1813. Serial No. 754,178.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SIXTO OoAMrc a subipct of the Kingdom of Spain,residing at ew York city, in the county and vState of New York, 'haveinvented certain new and useful Im rovements in Means for the Systematic(lbntrol of Electric Circuits by Light-Rays, of which the following is aclear, full, and exact description.

The object of this invention is to control electric circuits,particularly circuits leading to electric lamps to cause variousconfigurations or designs to ap ear upon a bank of lamps, such as areuse for advertising purposes, for theater cab calls and the i like, sothat any combination of lights desired may be caused bank in luminouscontrast to the rest of the lamps by means of stencils orlight obscuringfilms, which may be assed between a light emitting source and a contoappear upon thef by an operator trol board of selenium units. Thissource pf light may be an ordinary lamp and lens, in I front of whichvarious cut stencils or films i may be inserted to cut oil the light tocertain units of selenium. The control board COD- sists of a greatmultitude of separate selenium piles, each pile controlling a lclrcuitfmaking switch, .each switch controlling at;

least one lamp on the lamp board.

The selenium piles have the property 1 colors and separate ofi becominggood conductors of electricity when under the influence of light thrownupon them, and poor conductors when the light is obscured. Consequentlif light is thrownupon the entire area 0 the control board, so as torender all the units of selenium fairly good conductors, all the switchma has will be operated, and all the lamp circuits closed, causing theentire board to be illuminated, but if the ray of 1i t is obscured fromany given unit or so! es of units, the resistance of those units will beincreased to such an extent that the pull on the armature will not begreat enough to overcome a tension spring, and hence the circuit tothose lamps Whichare in connection with the particular magnet switch ofthe obscured unit or series of units will not be lighted so that anoperator at the source of light by placing any type of stencil whichwill obscure rays of light which are thrown on the selenium piles cancontrol by the shape of light obscuring stencil the resistance of theunits, and hence the number of lights and the position of lights will bewill be possible to pro'ect on the solemum .pile transmitter rays o.light from an ordinary rojecting machine, and moving picture film, sothat the l' ht as it is obscured by the dark portions 0 the film willcreate its impression upon certain selenium iles to cause them tooperate or not acco ing to the degree oft obscuration of the light.While I have shown a lamp board having only one color of lamp, and aselenium ile having one unit section for each indivi ual lamp, and asingle film so that block or outline in black and white contrast can beproduced on the board, nevertheless I do notv wish to lim t m inventionto such sim 1e form of device, or it will be obvious t at the color ofthe lights may be chan ed, and different piles caused to controlifi'erent lms or stencils used for selecting color, or a combination ofcolors desired to be reproduced. p In the accompanying drawings, I havein a general diagrammatic way illustrated e. accom anymg inventionsuiliciently so that one s illed in the art and possessed of theknowledge of the phenomena attending the use of the selenium will beable to pram tise the invention.

The scope of my invention will be pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 i is an illustrative view of aselenium transmitter switch, and lamp board. It will be understood thatI have shown but a few of these units when in reality there would bemany thousands of them. Fig. 2 shows an enlarged face view of a singleselenium pile drawn to a greatly enlarged scale. Fig. 3 is a section inline 3-3 Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a dia am showing five selenium cells or piles1n circuit with the electric switches and the lamps. Fig. 5 is adiagrammatic view of a projecting machine and film, and a side elevationof the selenium transmitter.

In the accompanying drawings, 1 represents a projecting machine; 2 theprojecting film or stencil; 3 the seleniumtransmitter which is dividedup into many hundreds or thousands of square selenium 'cells or piles.There are shown only fifty-six in the drawing, but it is understood thatthis is merely diagrammatic.

4, is the lamp board having a multitude of lamps, such as incandescentelectric lamps 5 thereon, at least one for each selenium cell. Each cell6 is formed of the overlapping plates 7 and 8, alternate plates beingconnected to conductor boards 9 and 10, and between the boards and theplates 'the selenium 11 is interposed in the ordinary manner known tothe art. The conductor rods9 and 10 are connected by wires 11 and 12,with a source of current 13, and a magnet 14 adjacent to an armature 15,which is normally held away from the magnet by a spring 16, and tensionscrew 17, so that a predetermined amount of current must pass throughthe magnet 14 before the armature is attracted to permit its contactlocks 18 contacting with contact points 19 and 20, each connected with awire 21 and 22. The wire22 leads to a lamp 5 from which a wire 23 leadsto a source of lighting supply, while the wire 21 leads to the othersource of electric light current supply.

As explained in the fore part of this specificatlon, the adjusting screw17 will be so regulated that the spring 16 will normally prevent theoperation of the armature, which will be prevented until li ht is thrownupon the selenium unit, which i ht will reduce its resistance, and causesu cient current to flow through the magnet 14 to overcome the springand make the contact to supply current to that lamp which is controlledby the particular selenium unit.

In carrying out this invention, details of construction may be variedfrom those shown, and yet the essence of the invention be retained; someparts might be employed without others, and new features thereof mightbe combined with elements old in the art in diverse ways, although theherein described type is ,regarded as embodying substantial im rovementsover such modifications.

s many changs could be made in the above construction, and manyapparently widely different embodiments of the invention could be madewithout departing from the,scope thereof, it is intended that all mattercontained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawingsshall be interpreted in an illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is furthermore desired to be understood that the language used in thefollowing claims is intended to cover all the generic and specificfeatures of the invention herein described, and all statements of thescope of the invention which as a matter of language might be said tofall therebetween.

I claim as my invention:

1. The herein described apparatus for reproducing figures'from a stencilequivalent, consisting o a source of light, the stencil eguivalent, theboard containing a multitude 0 units, the resistance of which iseffected by the throwing of light thereon, electrical. connections fromsaid units, and a board having a multitude of lights thereon, at leastone light for each unit.

2. The herein described apparatus for reproducing figures from a stencilequivalent, consisting o a source of light, the stencil equivalent, theboard containing a multitude of units, the resistance of which iseffected by the throwing of light thereon, electrical connections fromsaid units, and a board dred and thirteen.

SIXTO OOAMPO. Witnesses:

ROBERT RICHTER, F. WARREN WRIGHT.

